The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-07-26
THE CAPTURED FLAGS.
The Story Told by Lost-Cause Emblems-How
they Are Kept in the War Department.

they Are Kept in the War Department.
Washington Letter in New York World
Yesterday in walking through the immense
granite pile of the State, War and Navy depart
ments, l was taken with curiosity to see the
battle-da9s which have set the country In an up
Turning to the right from the main cor
ridor of the building the second floor, | en-
tered the commodous apartments OF the Adlu-
tantgenerals Office, and found myself confront
ing. at corner desk in one of the rooms. rath-
er low-statured man of well-fed form and placid
face, with his coat off like ordinary clerk
bending to his work, alternately mopping the
heat from his forehead and signing orders ms
individual looked as little as possible like kind
ling the memories of a great rebellion or starting
the world on flame in any quarter. The heat
of the day seemed all-sufficient for
his energies All the same il was General
Drum, Adjutant-general of the United States
army, whose autograph on slip OF paper ad-
dressed 70 Mr.. Cleveland, few weeks ago, and
recommending the distribution over the country
of a variety of tattered bunting in the garnet OF
the War Office set the country by the and
is likely to play copsidera BILE role in coming
campaign for American President 1 had
been told that Adjutant-general Drum was
tremely sensitive to the inquiries of visitors con-
corning this same bunting, any mention OF the
subject having come to act on lis nerves
like the fiutter of certain other flags of those
a Spanish bull. [ agreeably surprised,
therefore, on informing this gentleman that l
haG witnessed in the old days of the rebellion
nhe spectacle of the arrival of many of these
flags in the War Department. fresh from the
battle fields which they were captured. and
of my wish to again inspect them, at being met
with the blandest of smiles and promptly put in
charge of an attendant with full instructions to
aid my mission.
Carried by an elevator Eve stories up. under
the roof of the War Department, almost burn
ing in this Washington summer weather. the
key being turned by my guide in the door of an
attc-room, stood instant later in little
space hardly more than ten feet square, nearly
within reaching distance on all sides of these
battered mementoes of the war, the very men
ton of which has set afire the hearts of sixty
millions of people-a few rags saturated with
If spof Ruf rha ret
thought seeing them in this penJ-up space or
attic is of the smaness of the cause to the size
of the effect. The flags heaped about the room
appear at first sight only handful at the most,
but counted separately there are $50 in all over
five hundred OF them being confederate and the
remainder federal flags recaptured from their
captors. One half of the entire number were
attached TO their slaves as they were originally
taken. the flags of the two sections being
stacked In separate masses against two sides OF
the room, facing the other half folded and pro-
truding from pigeon holes on the opposite walls.
The sight of the Stars and Stripes keeps always
familiar. But the first look at the dark red
heap of the banners of rebellion, piled here
against the side of the attic, blots out
twenty five years from the memory and brings
back as if it were yesterday the red years when
tnev waved at the head of their regiments.
There is hardly flag among them all that has
not its history recorded in the book in the hands
of the keeper of the All nearly
riddled with bullets. and MANY, like those
carried through such battles the Wilderness
and the second Bull Run, were shot literally
rag.
The contrast in the appearance Of the
Southern and Union standards is significant of
the history of the The latter are rugged
on clean, polished poles and of firm, rich
material, many of them of silk. showing an
abundance in the North of the fa Drics of which
they continued to be made. The majority of
the Confederate flags are of the wretchedess
shoddy bunting miserable in color, as in sub
stance, while great numbers of them are
mounted on rude, un barked gads and sapllngs,
hastily cut from the woods on the march-recali-
ing the blockade and the pinching days when
had fallen a section without manufact-
ures. and the intense desperate purpose of
people forgot seemliness and absorbed every
thought but the winning of their fight.
Many of the flags lying folded in the boxes
and taken out to be exhibited by the guardian
of the room recall still more wildly the narrow
straits of rebellion its last legs. being literally
independent of discrimination in color aud made
of patches from women's dresses and under
skirts of nearly every hue and material-ptlful
reminders of the Spartan poverty and courage
that were still fail of their end. There
some exceptions however, in this store-room
of battle trophies. to these mementos of the
sterner days of the war for the South. The at
tendant drew from the pigeon holes on the walls
and unfolded for my inspection TT rec or four
magnificent banners of heavy silk, f1nged with
tas5els of gold and ornamented with pictures in
oil ana rich embroderings field of blue.
These flags represent the earlier and halcyon
days of the lost cause when they were made
by local associations of ladies and presented to
the military organizations which carried them.
One of those flags belonged to the Appalach-
icola Guard whose name is stitched in gold let
tiers on its folds above the exuitant mostos:
I'm God is Our Trust" "Our Rights We
Will Maintain" The finest of them all
is the banner presented by the ladies of Norfolk
to the Norfolk Light Artillery with an oil por-
trait of Washington in the center of it's field, the
mottos on the reverse side being the same as
those of the flag just described. The days when
the Confederate -rmies could afford such luxury
in ensigns quickly passed away. however, ss Is
evidenced by this collection, representing every
period OF the In the beginning of the re-
bellion the design OF the flag carried By the
Southern regiments was that of the stars and
bars-two red bars and one white-changing at
later period to red field with the Southern
Cross, resembling the British Union Jack.
study of the record kept by the War Department
of the name and capture of each of these flags,
though a work of days, would be of intense in
terest to the veteran soldier 1t would recall to
him the episodes of triumph on half the fields of
the rebellion. The sight of the flags themselves
would do something more-quickening his heart
beats with memories of the great fight. That
not few of these standards have been the CEN
tiers of deadly personal encounter is evident from
the numerous blood-stains still traceable upon
them. The staves also, OF many OF them are
ragged with the gnaw of bullets. the lead In
some instances piercing their centers and re-
naming imbedded in the wood. Everything,
in fact, in the appearance of the whole colec-
tion as it is piled here in the narrow garrett,
faded. and soiled and tattered, shows these
no banners of holiday parade but have passed
through the fire and extremity of actual war
the sorrowful weeds blasted and fallen from
its wrath. For myself, not soldier. but a
resident of Washington during the period, I
recalled the stirring incidents of their presenta-
ton TO the War department they
brought straight from the fields of their capture.
One of these occasions thirty of these
standards l remember, were carried here two
DAYS after the fight at Winchester by deega-
ton of soldiers whose hands had actually seized
them in the fight, Custer, with his long. yellow
hair. at their head. Stanton, the grim secre-
tary, unbent. Stanton loved results, and these
were the pa pable evidences of triumph. Coming
out of the lions den of his Office he took each
soldier by the hand and welcomed them as
body with speech AS the little group stood
before his door listening to his address, the cap
tured standards held above their heads in the
narrow hall of the old War Department made
picturesque cloud of color which, together with
the entire scene, it not easy to forget.
When the affair was over the soldiers started
again for the field, and Stanton, taking Clusters
xrn1- ad Sln 1ulrr low the OF the War